It's already February 1, 2015. How often do I ask myself where time goes? Very often, I assure you. I wonder if I may be biting off more than I can chew or if I've just forgotten how to effectively manage my time.

When I first decided to to add a Blog to my Website, I was excited. I had so much to say, so much to talk about, or so I thought.

I used to be a good writer. I wrote poetry - I still do, but not as often. Granted, writing poetry isn't the same as blogging, but, still, I felt like I had a leg up. Instead, I found myself sitting at my computer, fingers resting softly, yet firmly, on my keyboard... just waiting. Nothing happened. No ideas. No inspiration. Just a blank stare. I wanted to find topics that haven't already been explored by a myriad of other photography bloggers. If nothing else, I at least wanted to put a different spin on those same topics. My inspiration had clearly left the building. Trying too hard, perhaps?!

I'd really like to know how other bloggers manage to juggle everything. Is blogging all they do or do they do it in conjunction with another job? As for me, in addition to photography,

Every time I decide to sit down and write, I feel like my brain is overloaded and I just can't seem to focus. No doubt some of you can relate to this frustrating haze. If you have any tips or advice to share, please leave a reply. Thanks.

That's it, for now. Here's hoping that I'll come up with some interesting topics in the future. If not, well, at least I have cookies.

As I discussed in my previous “Avoiding blurry photos” blog post, you can minimize or avoid camera shake by using a flash and a tripod. Should the latter not be an option, however, here is what you could alternatively do to help your situation.

Logically, you could increase your shutter speed, but that may not always be what you want to do, depending on the type of photo you are aiming for. What other options do you have?

Brace yourself. Lean against something: a wall, a fence, a post, a solid table, or even another person – pretty much anything that can give you more stability. You may not have realized this, but even using your camera’s viewfinder instead of the LCD can give you added stability, since you’ll be leaning your face into the camera and bracing your eye onto the viewfinder.

Get a firmer grasp. Find different ways of holding your camera. Stay relaxed, but hold onto your camera firmly and with conviction. Use your other hand to cradle the belly of lens with your thumb and forefinger. It’s also quite important to always keep your arms close to your body – tuck in those elbows!

Breathe. Keep your breathing in check. Relax and breathe before you give that shutter button the final click.

Take multiple shots. You’re not going to become a better photographer if you always limit yourself. Taking a single shot of an image isn’t always the best idea. Take multiple shots, relaxing a few seconds between each. The more you practice your bracing, grasping, breathing… the better you’ll become and the more comfortable you’ll get at holding your camera.

If you've ever shot in low-light conditions, chances are some of your photos have come out partially or completely blurry or out-of-focus. This is typically caused by what is called “camera shake” or lack of image stabilization. Camera shake is particularly problematic at slow shutter speeds and is caused when the camera is handheld. [Note: It can also occur when using a telephoto (long focal length) lens.] We can humorously call this the “shaky-hand syndrome.” Because you’re exposing your image for such a long period of time during this process, each small movement or shake – even if unnoticeable - will cause the exposure to blur, consequently negatively impacting the sharpness and quality rendering of your image.

You can easily prevent this from occurring by using a flash as well as a tripod to remove any such shaking.